25 Cents (Pattern)

The 1792 Quarter Dollar Pattern: an eagle on a globe, and a century of arguments

A young eagle stands on a globe, wings half-spread, looking back over its shoulder. It is one of the earliest images the United States Mint ever stamped into metal — and almost everything else about it is disputed. Two copper examples survive. A handful in white metal. One sold for more than a million dollars while experts openly admitted they could not say for certain what it was.